The Economist is winning

I've been reading the Economist off and on for some time now and have long appreciated its global view (via the U.K., of course). There are articles in there about Africa, Asia and beyond, and countries that are never covered elsewhere. Their special sections are hit or miss, but the best can be very good.

The Atlantic's Michael Hirschorn writes in the current issue about Why The Economist is thriving while Time and Newsweek fade. Circulation and advertising figures have risen for the Economist while they've dropped for both Time and Newsweek. Moreover, The Economist has stuck to their knitting, so to speak, and have not felt the need to undergo a massive redesign, unlike their U.S. counterparts. Hirschorn posits, "The real value of The Economist lies in its smart analysis of everything it deems worth knowing—and smart packaging, which may be the last truly unique attribute in the digital age."

Even if you are just skimming the magazine, the captions on the photos are invariably clever, and their ability to clearly depict data in graphs and charts is far better than most of the publications out there - less cutesy than USA Today, but more understandable than the WSJ.